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Life of struggle: Tales of children who survive on firewood

Deborah and some children carrying firewood

For the about 200 children living in Igbon, a small community in Osun State, theirs is a life of difficulty due to extreme hunger. To survive, they trek long distances in the search of firewood to sell – seeking to help their parents put food on the table. In this report, JESUSEGUN ALAGBE writes about their travails in the bush

As early as 5:30am when she rises from the shabby mat that lies on the bare floor in her parents’ rented one-room apartment, she hurriedly dashes to the well in front of the house to fetch some water for bathing and cooking, and then she heads to the bush – miles away from her home – where she fetches firewood, just before she goes to school. Oftentimes, she gets to the school very late, worn out and flaky.

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Deborah Kehinde is only 12 years old, but she, like many other children in Igbon, a small community in Ejigbo Local Government Area, Osun State, has been made to understand early that “life is not a bed of roses.”

The looks on their faces show that of hardship that they probably share with their parents, who are petty traders, farmers or motorcycle operators. And even though they are young and tender, the burden that they bear in their hearts has stretched their minds beyond measure. They have learnt to live with it, though.

Usually, when they want to go to the bush in the morning to fetch firewood both for sale and for cooking before going to school, they pack their books and school uniforms in cellophane bags and wrap them in rags that they will use to support the firewood on their heads.

By 8:00am when few pupils are on the assembly ground, ready to start the day’s lesson, Deborah and some other kids are always just returning from Ejigbo, a major neighbouring town in the state, where they hawk the firewood to and sell to food vendors. The children spend about two hours trekking to and fro the town of Ejigbo, a five-kilometre distance from Igbon.

Life of struggle

On a weekday when our correspondent met Deborah and her friends, they were just about to go to the bush – an activity that has somewhat become their lifestyle, a sort of phenomenon. Though they were a bit scared at first by the accompaniment of an ‘august visitor’ to the bush, sooner did they realise that they had no reason to be afraid.

On getting to their destination (a bush), Deborah told Saturday PUNCH, “This is one of the places where we find firewood because there are so many dry trees here. After cutting the ones that we can sell, we tie them up in bundles and hawk at Ejigbo. There we sell to some food vendors.

“I do wake up early to come here with my friends so that we can select the best sticks; otherwise, some other children could be here earlier and select the fat ones. We have to be smart.”

Little did the girl know that she and her friends were merely practising competition – such as is being done in the normal business world.

She continued that she was not lucky at times in finding strong firewood and so she would have to trek to other bushes, to places far to her home and school. If she is not lucky to find the good ones on time, she gets to school late and misses much of the lesson being taught other kids.

The Primary Four pupil in the community’s District Council Primary School has had to repeat the class twice – and one of the schoolteachers, Mr. John Olorede, told Saturday PUNCH that she might be demoted to Primary Two next term as her performance had not improved.

When asked how much she often realises on a bundle of firewood, Deborah said each sells for N50 ($0.3); however, some ‘naughty’ buyers still beat the price down to N20 ($0.1) or N30 ($0.2), depending on how strong the sticks are. If she is able to sell two bundles in a day, she earns about N100 ($0.5) to support her parents, who are peasant farmers.

Deborah lamented, “We spend hours finding firewood, but we only sell them at N50 per bundle. But even at that, some customers negotiate and ask us to collect N30 or N20.

“If I know it’s worth more than that, I go to other places where they can buy at good prices, but if I am getting late to school, I quickly sell at the low price so I could have money to deliver to my parents at home.”

Femi wornout after returning from the bush

In an age when children like Deborah in cities and bigger towns in the country go for excursions, she goes to the bushes – because she has to fetch firewood to support her parents so that they could afford to provide her and her siblings what to eat.

When she was asked how she feels seeing other children go to school while she was going to the bush, she said, “Yes, I feel ashamed when I walk past my age-mates in the town with a bunch of firewood on my head. But I know that if I did not sell, there would be no food at all for me and my siblings.”

Truly, there would be no food for them. Her 10-year-old brother, Femi, also narrated to Saturday PUNCH that they often get bitten by insects in the bush, but added that they had since developed immunity against such bites.

He said, “We often get stung by insects. At times we find scorpions coiled around the firewood. There are some other sorts of reptiles in the bush, but we have to obey our parents, or else, there is no food for us, no matter how small it is.

“We get pains in the neck, especially on Saturdays when we often go to the bush more than once so that we can sell more bundles of firewood and make more money.”

Just like Deborah and Femi, Sola, his siblings and playmates also go to the bush to fetch firewood and display them by the roadside to attract potential buyers.

The nine-year-old boy said, “My parents are farmers and I follow them to the farm on weekends. My father cuts the sticks for my brother and I, and we either carry them to Ejigbo or display them by the roadside in front of our house.

“While some people tell us to bring the firewood to them anytime we go to the farm, some come to our house to buy them directly. I prefer them coming to our house by themselves so that I will not have to hawk them. It aches when I carry the sticks on my head.”

Sola’s playmate, Dapo, lamented going late to school every day because he has to fetch firewood first. “That is what many people use to cook here, but not all of them can go to the bush. I hand over the money I make to my mother; she uses part of it to cook soup and at times she gives me a part to take to school for lunch.”

Similar tales to Deborah’s, Sola’s and Dapo’s were shared by the other children our correspondent interacted with on a visit to the community, which has a few hundred people.

A parent in the community, Adeyemi Oyedemi, said it was not desirable that children had to go to the bush before food could be put on their tables; however, he said that firewood was the major source of energy in the community. “Not many people use kerosene here to cook, it is expensive,” he said.

He added, “We use firewood to cook our meals here because it is free. We do not have to pay for kerosene or gas. We simply go to the bush and we get them free of charge. Since there are no roads that connect our homes to the bushes, it means we have to carry them on our heads to the house; we also sell the firewood in other communities like Ejigbo.

“However, it is the work of our children to do the work. Or do you expect parents to go to the bush while the children keep sleeping or playing in the house? That is why you see them carrying those firewood on their heads. In fact, my children have all gone to the bush as I speak and they should be back in the evening. We are poor here, that is why you see us like this.”

True to his poverty claim, Oyedemi spent several minutes offering many prayers of blessings in return for a financial gesture Saturday PUNCH offered him.

While commenting on the practice of children selling firewood in long distances to the school, one of the teachers in the only primary school in the village, Mr. John Olorede, said, “Many of my pupils sleep here during class because they come to the school tired already after spending several hours doing chores and hard labour.

“At times I feel sad for their future, but there is nothing I could do to help their situation. They have to eat and obey their parents. I cannot mandate them to come to school when there is no food for them to eat at home.”

Despite their challenges, Olorede, however, said some of the children display brilliance during class. “I can say some of them are brilliant students only if they had the means to face schooling squarely,” he said.

Nonetheless, Olorede said that many of the children drop out of school as soon as they finish with their primary education. He said, “Some of them drop out of school after finishing with their primary education. Since there is no secondary school here, a few go to secondary schools outside this village.

“There are many secondary schools in Ejigbo, our neighbouring town, where these children go to after completing their primary education. But even at that, you find out that they eventually drop out when they could not afford to enrol for the Senior School Certificate Examination. Just imagine, how much can they make by hawking firewood for their parents to get enough money to go to tertiary schools?”

Recently, the United Nations Children’s Fund said that statistics showed that Nigeria has 10.5 million children out of school – the highest number in the world.

The organisation said that recent indications showed that the country, which had been on top of the continent’s out-of-school table, had moved further down the league and needed immediate intervention to get back on track.

The organisation’s Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation specialist, Dr. Danjuma Almustafa, lamented that almost one of three primary school children was out of school, and roughly one of four junior secondary school children was out of school.

“Rural areas are disadvantaged almost everywhere in the country. Moreover, wealth and socio-economic status confer a definite advantage in terms of enrolment, attendance and completion,” he said.

Child labour and poverty still high in Nigeria

According to UNICEF, the issue of child labour still remains a major source of concern in Nigeria, in spite of legislative measures.

Child labour refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children and deprives them of opportunities for schooling and development.

According to the International Labour Organisation, the number of working children under the age of 14 in the country is estimated at 15 million. Meanwhile, research has shown that child workers display poor educational achievements.

In a country with children population of 76,434,302, according to a July 2013 estimate by the National Population Census, the country’s UNICEF spokesperson, Mr. Geoffrey Njoku, said children are not supposed to be in the labour market, but in a school environment.

“First and foremost, the practice is totally condemnable. Children should be in school, not in the labour market. A child has a right to education. However, when parents are empowered economically, it would relieve the pressure to send children into the labour market,” Njoku said in an email to Saturday PUNCH.

Likewise, a child activist, Mrs. Moyo Owolabi, said on the telephone that children could learn life lessons and discipline through ‘creative means,’ not by fetching and hawking firewood.

She said, “It is weird that children, who are supposed to be in school being nurtured by their parents, are the ones nurturing their parents. What an irony! I strongly believe that no matter the poverty level in a family, children should not be made to engage in hard labour.

“They are not supposed to be in the labour market, but in schools. Some of us had very poor parents also, but they took us to school. They suffered for us. It is normal to do house chores and learn lessons about life, but definitely not by going to the bushes and fetching firewood. That is so cruel.

“Children can learn some lessons about life through sports and games, not by engaging in physical labour. What if the children get bitten by a snake in the bush? I advise the parents to stop sending their children to the forest. They should look for other means to feed their families. These children are not for that. They are blessings and they are to be nourished.”

Even though Nigeria became the strongest economy in Africa when it rebased its Gross Domestic Product in April 2014, child poverty in the country is alarming – estimated at 15 million by the UNICEF as of 2007.

An economic expert, Michael Green, said in his Technology, Entertainment and Design Talks speech, a global set of conferences owned by a private non-profit group, Sapling Foundation, that increase in GDP does not translate to increase in social progress.

He said, “It is less becoming a guide to our economic welfare. It is possible a country is growing in GDP, but going backward on the social progress index. There must be increase in sustainable growth that translates to the welfare of the people.

“In this 21st century, we face new challenges like obesity and climate change. To face these challenges, we need new tools of measurement, new ways of valuing progress. Imagine holding politicians accountable to improving our social progress, then will this age be the best ever.”

Hardship and performance of children

While some people are of the opinion that hardship in children could propel them for success later in life, some others believe it could negatively affect their performance in the future.

However, a psychologist in the University of Lagos, Nigeria, Professor Makanju Ayobami, said on the telephone that the answer was not a straightforward one. He said “it depends on so many factors.”

He added, “If a child helps their parents by fetching water or firewood or doing any other jobs to support the parents, there is nothing bad about it. But there should be a limit to what the child does. If the child does not spend the whole day in the bush and goes to school, then it is fine.

“Everyone knows that children’s going to the bush is not desirable, but if there is moderation as to the kind of work the child does, it is okay. Children should not be made to go through hell. I know some of my friends who passed through such and they are successful today. The parents should not make the children do too much.”

However, there is a downside. Ayobami also explained that if a child who is passing through hardship lives in an affluent area and sees the children of wealthy families being comfortable, they may start developing negative traits.

“He may start to see the society as being unjust. If their distance is limited to the rural areas where he sees his age-mates doing same thing, he may not develop such feelings. It could even drive him to succeed in the future. All the same, parents should not subject their children to such level of hardship,” he said.

Deforestation and global warming

Deborah and the other children in Igbon have no idea that their activities are linked to about 30 per cent of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere each year, according to the United Nations.

An agricultural scientist, Mr. Amos Oladokun, defined deforestation as an act of cutting down trees – either for use as firewood or furniture, while global warming (and climate change) refers to an increase in average global temperatures.

According to the National Space Agency, the emission of carbon dioxide, a gas which is widely responsible for global warming, is released through human activities such as deforestation, land use changes, and burning of fossil fuels.

The effects are: sea level rise, erosion, inundation, risks to infrastructure, increasing ocean acidity, wildfire, insect outbreaks, extreme heat and heavy downpours, among others.

The agency, like many climate scientists, said that efforts must be made by governments worldwide to reduce the act of deforestation in a bid to make the environment safe.